My Weekend in Sicily - #Chicandstylish #LINKUP

Morning my friends.

Welcome to Mummabstylish today.

Apologies for no post on Monday, I just couldn't get myself together and get a post sorted.  

It's been such an emotional week with a few tears shed here and there for our Queen Elizabeth II.

It's crazy that someone I didn't know can affect me like it has, but losing her made me think of all the other people I've loved and lost along the way, it's brought up many memories for many of us - I wonder if you have felt the same?

On a brighter note, on Sunday we celebrated the christening of my youngest grand-daughter Kimberley.  It was a very quiet occasion with about 50 family and friends enjoying the afternoon in our local church and then afterwards in my daughters garden.  We had a lovely BBQ along with a couple of drinks and a large piece of cake!  The diet was well and truly out the window my friends!  How naughty of me!

Do you remember I went away for a long weekend to Sicily a week ago?  Today I wanted to share my fantastic weekend in the absolutely stunning location of Savocca.

After a 3 and a bit hour flight to Catania we found our way to collect our car.  We'd booked a Fiat 500, and we were perturbed to find out they'd up-graded us to a bigger one!  I was really upset as I'd set my heart on having a little Italian car so they chap changed us back to the smaller car we'd booked!  Imagine that, being upset by being up graded!

Here's out little white Fiat that served us well for our long weekend, it went up the hills and round the hairpin bends beautifully!

With my phone map giving us directions and the little map I'd taken with me we found our way to the hotel with ease, only making one wrong turn which we recognized immediately. It was high up the mountain in a little village called Savoca.  It had been the setting for The Godfather and I was delighted to finally get there, but not as much as David was.  It has been a life-long ambition to visit Sicily and encounter many of the locations for the 1972 film featuring Al Pacino, Marlon Brando and James Caan.  

We'd booked the stunning hotel Borgo San Rocco which was out of this world.  I don't often say I would go back to a hotel, but this one will definitely been re-visited in the future.  It was quiet and idyllic, with friendly staff and an owner who wanted the best for his visitors, he was very generous with the red wine (fortunately for us) and made conversation with all the hotel guests. It was a small hotel with 21 rooms.  All of which were overlooking the valley and further on the beach of Santa Teresa di Riva.  It was so quiet and still, except for the Sunday afternoon when we had a terrific thunder storm and lots of rain, it cleared for the evening when we could again sit outside and enjoy the ambience on our last night.

Enjoying the surroundings and the red wine.  The food was amazing too, we had a different menu each day, and had already decided to eat there every night - didn't fancy the drive up the mountain in the dark!

This was the foyer, which led to the reception desk where we were greeted every day by friendly, English speaking staff.  The breakfast room and dining room were off this and also the door taking us outside to the narrow road which was also where some dining table were situated too.

Here's the sitting area.  It had elaborate furniture and some striking artwork, ornaments and display cabinets.  It was also cool which was nice to sit in after being out in the heat for the day.

I loved this area.  You can see the hotel was built into the rock face and part of that made a wonderful feature and was a connecting walkway from dining room to sitting room.

We woke early on Saturday and went down for breakfast.  Breakfast consisted of bread, cheese and ham, with fruit, tomatoes, croissants, cakes, cereals, yoghurts, fruit juices, tea and coffee.  There was plenty to choose from, and I certainly took full advantage of eating what I could, you know me!

Our trip was to Forza d'Agro.  This wasn't very far, but took about half an hour to get to as we had to go down the twisty mountain and up another one.  We were going there to find the Church that was featured in the film.  We found it easily enough and were pleased to see we'd got there early before everyone on the tours arrived.   At the church and took a couple of photos before taking a walk up to the top of the village.  There were some ruins there, but the gate was locked so we took photos of the views instead.  I thought I was fit with all the gym classes I go to, but I was exhausted after the long climb and it was nice to sit and enjoy a shandy in the shade.  We were just around the corner from the church and we were delighted when the clock chimed 12 o'clock and the strains of Ave Maria was played over a loud speaker, it really made our visit even more memorable.

Returning to the hotel we decided to visit Bar Vitelli, this was featured in the film too.  Imagine how good we felt when the exact table was vacant when we got there, we sat at it immediately ordering some drinks and a cannoli (for me obviously).  They have one room which was like a shrine to the Godfather, it had photos and other memorabilia on display with a chair that Michael Corleone sat on!  It had a big sign on it saying do not sit here! 

It was very busy and we were so lucky to get THAT table, there were visitors coming in all the time wanting tables and taking photos.

On Sunday we decided to visit Taromina which was about an hour up the road. It was a busy bustling town, with lots of shops selling local wares and both high and low end fashion shops - I found a lovely two piece that had to come home with me, but not before wearing it on our last evening!  It's a gorgeous shade of coral orange and looks amazing with my tan - do let me know what you think!

I'll let you into a little secret, the above photo was taken about half an hour before a downpour!  We were sitting having some pizza when the thunder clapped and the heavens opened - we all rushed inside to finish our food and wait for the rain to pass - it eventually stopped and dried up immediately.  We made our way back to the car, before any more rain came our way.

We also found this church The Church of San Nicolo.  It was also featured in the film and was the setting where Michael married Apollonia.

Thanks for joining me on my little tour around Savocca, do leave a comment if you'd like to know any more about it. X

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Time for the #Chicandstylish #LINKUP

Favourite blogger from last week is Rena - Fine Whatever who's wearing very similar trousers to what I wore last week.  Her’s are a wonderful shade of rust and look right up my street too!

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Thank you so much for joining me today, I thoroughly enjoyed telling you about my long weekend to Sicily.

See you on Monday where they'll be a tribute to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

Bye for now. X